Huntly and Inverurie Locos played out a scrappy 1-1 draw at Christie Park.
Andy Hunter’s superb second-half strike for Huntly was quickly cancelled out by a Ross Still header as the spoils were shared.
Huntly remain in 13th in the Highland League table, with Locos dropping to seventh after Formartine’s win over Keith.
Locos created several half-chances in the first 10 minutes, with Jay Halliday and Kieran Shanks having shots blocked before Craig Gill’s effort struck his own man and went wide.
Huntly, who beat Inverurie to reach the the Aberdeenshire Shield final in December, came into the game with one win in seven, having take on the Highland League’s title-challengers in recent weeks.
A swift counter-attack present them with their first opportunity 18 minutes in, with Jack MacIver’s centre hit tamely by Robbie Foster straight to Andy Reid.
Calum Dingwall was next to try his luck for the visitors, firing over from 25 yards after Johnstone’s clearance fell to him.
Aberdeen loanee Jack MacIver’s deflected effort had Andy Reid scrambling in the Locos goal, with the Locos stopper managing to smuggle the ball behind.
Foster then lashed over at the back post as the home side’s confidence began to grow. A wonderful flowing move involving Hunter and MacIver then resulted in the latter driving just wide of the near post.
Hunter was coming up against his former club, having left Locos earlier in the season, and has snap-shot whistled narrowly over the top of the bar 10 minutes into the second half.
A worrying collision on the hour between Robert Ward and Huntly goalkeeper Euan Storrier on the hour saw the Black and Golds number one stretchered off, with teenager Keith Robertshaw brought on in his place.
Hunter was determined to have his say in the outcome of the game, wriggling into space just inside the penalty before curling a sumptuous effort in off the crossbar. The striker, pointedly, wheeled away with his finger to his mouth.
But there was a response finally from a flat Locos side. A Dingwall corner from the left was turned home by Ross Still.
Nathan Meres, who had a loan spell at Huntly during the 2019-20 season, had a penalty appeal waved away with five minutes to go, after he went down under Chris Hay’s challenge, before he sent a header straight into Robertshaw’s grasp.
Dingwall’s cross-shot rolled agonisingly across the face of goal in stoppage-time as both sides were forced to settle for a point.
